1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to online transactions and more particularly to the storage of records associated with online transactions.
2. Related Art
Customers routinely search for and purchase products and services through electronic communications with online merchants over electronic networks such as the Internet. In this regard, individual consumers may frequently engage in transactions with a variety of merchants through, for example, various merchant websites.
During the course of these transactions, merchants may provide customers with receipts or other records. It is generally the consumer's responsibility to locally store these merchant receipts for future reference. Unfortunately, different merchants may provide receipts in a variety of forms with little or no consistency in the way information is presented.
As a result, customers may be forced to implement appropriate receipt storage using a trial and error approach. Moreover, in order to maintain useful records, customers must continuously implement such an approach as additional transactions are performed.
Nevertheless, the demands on consumers associated with such approaches can become onerous as the number of user-merchant transactions and the number of visited merchant websites increase. Consequently, consumers may be unable to consistently maintain satisfactory records, especially for purposes of finding transaction details which may be relevant for future transactions or activities.